Born in London, J. Boulter has spent many years living and working in continental Europe. Boulter’s articles on espionage history and literature have been published in the Journal for Intelligence, Propaganda and Security Studies, the American Intelligence Journal, and Crime Time magazine, among others.

• ContentsAbbreviationsPrologueIntroductionPart I Death to Spies: The Descent of Eastern Germany 1. Stunde Null2. Circles of Hell: Postwar Germany3. SMERSH4. Anti-fascist Unity: The New Politics5. The Police Reborn6. Ordering the Occupation Zone7. Denazification8. The German Administration of the Interior9. New Cloaks and Daggers10. Germany’ s New Political Police: K511. Order No. 20112. Developments in the Zone13. The Cold War Hits New Depths14. Clean and Dirty Spying15. The Murder that Wasn’ t 16. The Final Steps towards the StasiPart II United at birth: The GDR and the Stasi17. The Firm18. Party, Partners, and the Law19. A New European CountryInterlude: The DNA of the Stasi20. Conspiracy21. Chekists: the OGPU and NKVD22. RU23. The Comintern and the OMS 24. Stasi Creation Myths25. First Class Comrades: the Stasi’ s early leadersPart III Stalinism in Action26. Rostock, 195027. Cleansing the SED28. Neutering the National Front29. Enemies 30. Re-ordering the Stasi31. Ulbricht’ s Acceleration of Socialism32. Spy Wars33. Gehlen34. Sabotage and Kidnappings35. The Institute: The Birth of East German Foreign Intelligence36. ‘ A Fascist Putsch’ : The Uprising of 195337. Main Department XV: Foreign Intelligence Joins the StasiPart IV Grossaktionen: Spy-catching with the Stasi38. A Crisis of Spies39. ‘ Concentrated Blows’ 40. The First Grossaktion: Feuerwerk, October-December 195341. An Outbreak of Kidnapping42. The Second Grossaktion: Pfeil, August 195443. New Friends: The KGB44. The Third Grossaktion: Blitz, December 1954-April 195545. The Holes and Corners of Blitz46. Wrath47. Liquidating the Mü ller Network in Aktion Frü hling48. Treacherous Trials49. ‘ His Trench Coat Was Splattered with blood’ 50. The Stasi of the Grossaktionen Years51. Investigations, Observations, Arrests52. Reflections on the GrossaktionenPart V Up to the Wall53. Spies, Again54. Special Tasks55. Changing Times56. Mielke Wins57. More Dirty Operations58. The Informer Age: The 1958 Guideline on Collaborators and Stasi Reporting 59. Enlightenment: The Growth of East German Foreign Intelligence60. Tradecraft and Technologies61. Love Rats62. A Torrent of Spies63. Exposing Nazis64. Securing the Border65. The Western Powers Prepare66. A Decision is Made67. Old Tricks68. ‘ The Anti-fascist Protective Barrier’ 69. Spies, StillConclusionsAppendicesSelected bibliographyNotesIndex

It is the definitive account, a compelling exploration of a mind-bending ideological experiment, its secret servants and the lives they defined